Terrestrial SIGINT and radar stations offer security and they offer safety but they are limited by their coverage area. Sea based platforms can provide standoff detection range and listening range that exceeds the range of terrestrial stations, which are usually located far from coasts and deep inland. Coastal based platforms offer isolation and can offer a wide array of services for their small sizes.
The decision by the Empire of Layarteb to construct several maritime SIGINT/ELINT platforms in the latter part of the 1980s was not met without criticism. Locations for these platforms were initially limited but as the conquests grew, more and more locations opened up and four primary sites were finally chosen by the mid-1990s. The first and main site would be off the coast of Maine. Other sites would be in the Arctic Ocean, west of Baffin Island, north of French Guiana, and finally, north of the Yucatán state. In the early 2000s, following the negotiation of Wake Island away from the Eastasian Republic, a fifth site was added. By this time, three of the four original platforms were constructed and in place with work finishing up on the fourth. Adding a fifth platform was not a problem and it was finally placed into operational status in early 2007. After extensive negotiations with the Cottish government, a sixth platform was added to Adak Island in Alaska and entered operational service in mid-2007 although it is manned soley by Layartebian personnel. Following the withdrawal of Cottish rule from Alaska, the Adak Island site was removed and transported to a storage site.
Each platform is identical and is the result of a near 20-year development history. The platforms provide SIGINT and ELINT collection, early warning, space tracking, and ultra-long-range detection. Original plans to have the platforms be mobile were tossed out when the costs ballooned too high. Each platform costs $900,000,000.00. They are square, with a diameter of 380 feet. Sitting 108 feet in the air to the top of its platform and 309 feet in the air to the top of its dome, they offer a horizon line of 12.5 miles at the platform level. Each platform has a normal operating crew of 116 and can be resupplied by ship within twenty-four hours of a call. They all have a single helicopter pad, which can support the weight of a fully loaded H-53 Super Stallion as well as the size of a V-24 Bulldog, a faster way to resupply the stations. Each helicopter pad has a maximum weight rating of 128,000 pounds. A CH-53N Super Stallion II weighs 84,700 pounds fully loaded and a V-24 Bulldog weighs under 60,000 pounds. Due to its size limitations, only one V-24 or CH-53 can land at a time.
Each platform has enough supplies to last a full 90 days, which is the determined "on-station time" for crew members. Rotations last 90 days and every 90 days, a resupply vessel offloads another 90 days worth of supplies. All crew members are transported to and from the platform via helicopter for quicker turn-around times. The average distance between the coast and the location of each platform is 16.50 nautical miles, to which the Empire claims a territorial limit of 24 nautical miles. Rations and accomodations within each platform can become cramped over time but provide for a maximum amount of comfort. There are exercise rooms, lounges, galleys, sleeping accomodations, and even an arcade within each platform. In warmer climates, crew members often enjoy swimming underneath the platforms. To date, the highest dive by a Layartebian was done on one such platform where a crew member successfully dove from a height of 117 feet off the top of the platform into water. He survived to tell the tale.
The main intelligence gathering component of each platform is a powerful, phased-array radar with SAR capabilities. Powered by just under 4 megawatts, the radar itself can see targets as small as a baseball as far away as 3,100 miles. Using OTH techniques and telemetry bouncing, each platform has a maximum radar range of 7,500 miles, under ideal conditions in a 360° circle. These platforms are primarily aimed at tracking satellites, incoming missiles or warheads, and aircraft. They comprise a larger air defense network employed by the Imperial Layartebian Military but they also have highly effective surface-to-surface properties and can track naval vessels as far away as 2,050 miles. The platform is also equipped with smaller domes that are primarily tasked with intelligence collection. Within these domes are receivers and transmitters that collect signals through a variety of ways. They are amongst the primarily intelligence gathering systems employed by the Ministry of Intelligence and they can allow MOI technicians to listen to battlefield communications thousands of miles away with crystal clear reception. Aside from its "sight" capabilities, each platform can also datalink to the rest of the Layartebian Air Defense Network and actually guide missiles and aircraft to targets. The main radar of the platform is capable of tracking in excess of 2,000 targets and guiding in excess of 500 missiles and aircraft at once. The radars also function as powerful weather research tools and can offer meteorologists insight into weather patterns.
Power to the platform is not an easy task. Because of their location and nature, nuclear reactors cannot be installed. Instead, because they are based in the seas, they use multiple methods of collection to provide power. Solar and wind power provides a small precentage of the amount of power needed and often is used to resupply batteries and power tertiary systems. Hydro power is used to provide a significant portion of power as well as geothermal power, obtained through the moorings. The largest provider of power is through steam vents underneath the ocean floor, which provide the necessary heat to power its massive turbines located in the base of each platform.
The platforms had limited self-defense. They are not armed, per say but their crew members are. An armory locker within the platform can provide its crew with enough ammunition and firepower to stave off any type of infantry attack normally expected and can provide defense against pirates and soft-skinned boats. Against military-class cruisers, frigates, or destroyers, the platform must rely on coastal-defense equipment for survival. Due to their highly secretive nature and the security each platform entails, coastal defense batteries are always ready to engage possible interlopers and aircraft are always ready to fly. Given that they are within Layartebian territorial waters, any attacker must first breach this line of "defense," which will undoubtedly call in support.
Aside from its basic configurations, each platform is also highly weather resistant. Because they are to be based in danger zones where polar storms or even tropical storms could be hazardous, each platform is equipped with state-of-the-art weather resistance fortifications. They are built to withstand hurricanes exceeding category 4 and can survive sea based earthquakes as well. They are not weather-proof but they are highly weather resistant. The amount of energy required to destroy or upset each platform is a phenomenal amount.
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